


Bone White, Void Black, Ice Blue and Sunset-Fire Orange.

by Jena_ch



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Parent Kurosaki Isshin, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Family Reunions, Feels, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Identity Issues, Original Character(s), Pack Family, Pack Feels, Plans For The Future, Rebirth, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:48:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24046159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jena_ch/pseuds/Jena_ch
Summary: Once Upon a Time there was three beings. They met as they died.And as they were reborns, they became one entity, three spirits. Kurosaki Ichigo, and the two-blades Zangetsu.Or the one were a young woman fan of Bleach, White the Hollow, and a fragment of Yhwach's soul fuse and become a female Ichigo and her two zenpakuto. Of course, everything change. And some things don't.
Relationships: Couple To Be Decided, Hollow Ichigo | Zangetsu & Kurosaki Ichigo & Old Man Zangetsu | Quincy Zangetsu, Kurosaki Ichigo & Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Ichigo & Kurosaki Yuzu, Kurosaki Ichigo & Shiba Kuukaku, Kurosaki Ichigo & Urahara Kisuke, Kurosaki Ichigo & Visored, Kurosaki Ichigo & Zangetsu, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 34
Kudos: 340
Collections: A Collection of Beloved Inserts





	1. Prologue: When 1+1+1=1

**Author's Note:**

> Will be also posted on my acount on fanfiction.net under the username Jena-chan. 
> 
> English isn't my first tongue and I am bilingual but not a native speaker so, if something is said wrong or written wrong, please tell me and don't be too ofended. Thank you. I'm French if you're curious.

At the beginning, they didn’t understand. At all. In their minds, questions upon questions piled atop each other, hypothesis after hypothesis twisting around in a desperate effort to see logic into all this.

At first, it was very confusing because, _shouldn’t they be dead?_

And then they realised that, overlaying this thought, came another: _Why were they a conscious part of their descendant’s mind?_

It was so very odd, so very different, they just couldn’t not see it. And by turning their attention on this, away from those overlaying thoughts, saw that.

That’s when they realised that they were just that: a _they._ Two of them had been thinking along the same line, _not dead? How? Not dead, not dead, really?,_ and the third rejoigned them when they began to ask _how_ so each weren’t very differentiable from the other. But once the two realised the existence of the third, and the third of the other two, they all realised that they were three.

_What’s happening?_

But three where? In the realm of death? Because the two should have died. Clearly, they were certain of their memories on the matter and quite reassured that they were right because, _dead people end up where there are other dead people._ Which was the case. Since they are two. Maybe they ended up in the same part of the realm of the dead? Maybe they were waiting at the door of that realm together? Or to be reborn? And, by simple hazard, they ended up together? Maybe because they died around the same time and took enough space all together, what with one of the two being made from such gaggle of souls.

_Why? It can’t be good.-It isn’t. It’s Monstruous.-They didn’t have much of a choice, don’t be cruel. Are you alrigh?-What was that? They liked that._

But Third, was not someone who died. Third was a part of someone that was inherited. Upon death of the descendant, he simply goes back to the ancestor. So he was not dead and could not be dead. Also, they had a body.

And, _look at that, they did !_ They could _move !_

At first, they were all happy about it. Finally, moving instead of just being here. Finally, access to senses and not just darkness. Were their eyes simply closed?

But their limbs were so heavy they could only feel them, not lift them. And none of them really wanted to call what they just did with their eyes a blink.

 _What’s wrong?_ They couldn’t be that weak or that wounded, they had an incredible et perfect power of regeneration. _I was wounded. Fatally._ Explained the other one and it would all be perfectly logical then: They had an accident, they almost died, now they were healing in the hospital. _But what about their power?_

_And what about the baby? Are you the baby? Did you already grow? Did we sleep all this time?-Yes, are you the baby? Or you? I should actually eat the both of you, shouldn’t i?-Don’t tests me, Monster.-Eat us?! What?!_

_It’s-I’m- a Hollow.-Hollow are from a book._

For one second, they were silent in the body. That one was telling them that reality was the fantasy of a book. And they were telling that one that the fantasy of a book was reality. And immediately, they all had access to knowledge and memories as if it was their own. They _knew._

They knew the history of the Qincy, of Ywatch fighting wars, building an empire and becoming a revered god-like being. They knew the History of Soul Soceitei and of the Hueco Mundo, the curriculum of the Shinigami school and the corridors of Aizen’s lab. They knew the story of Bleach, and they knew that it was a possible future coming.

And they knew that they were all dying.

Ywatch would survive, but only as a spirit like always. A part of the descendant or a part of the ancestor and that was all. White would only survive buy being reborn as the Zenpakuto just like he had planned. Just like it happened in the manga. And in the same way, Jéna would only survive being reborn, remade even more than white, into Ichigo. A soul completely cleaned, bleached white, to give to the baby they now inhabited. For now.

Right now, their souls, for what there was of it between parasite-White and shard-Ywatch, were already fused together like three pieces of metal. Soon, they would be one entity of three spirit. And White and Jéna would not be a part of them.

Ywatch didn’t really care. Yes, from his eyes, Jéna was a child. And so her death was quite sad. But she wasn’t his child. And white was a Hollow. He’d destroy that one whether he survived as White or not.

But Jéna wasn’t satisfied and _didn’t want to die._

But White was greedy and gluttonous and _still had the urge to survive._

And so they did. Ywatch ended up swiftly taken by the tide they created.

It was all very confusing.

Jéna, White and Ywatch were all gone. In their place stood the miracle that was Ichigo, the first know hybrid. They were one entity made out of three other entity perfectly mashed up together. In there, you could find Jéna and White and Ywatch thinking, acting, living together. In there, there was three spirits, each holding a different part of the soul without separating from each other, without separating the soul. There was, like always, the human-who-could-be-anything, the hollow-shinigmi and the Qincy-shinigami.

When Ichigo opened her eyes for the first time upon Masaki Kurosaki, they still thought.

That’s Masaki. _Our Mother. Kaa-san._


	2. New World, New Body, New Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo discover that Isshin is an idiot dad and that Masaki is much better company. Ichigo's soul i a messy mess but it can work.

When Ichigo was born, they were weirdly conscious of what was happening. They were also, in an even weirder way, conscious that the happenings of their birth should have been barely comprehensible and not at all memorable. But they were adult, mentally somewhere between twenty-five and so-old-you-stopped-counting-and-the-calendar-had-changed-anyway, and so they knew exactly what was happening when really, they’d rather _not_.

_The hot and wet place-being wet and sticky and cold and raw- all those noises and all those hands and they didn’t like hospitals because that was too much like a laboratory-and, oh dear us, hold our head!-what was wrong with their neck?-They were forgetting and denying what was happening. Forever._

At first, they worried everyone, for one heavy minute while they were worrying even more about their birth, until they passed hands and their neck moved _wrong_ and the chirurgical gloves felt horrible on their sticky skin.

They _freaked out._

They were screaming and crying. Something incredible and terrible that tore their throat and stole all air. If they could form words, they would have screamed until those idiots had put them down. Put them down in a warm cover and cleaned them and _left them alone._

They were that done with the noise, the feelings of fluids and gigantic hands on their skin, the brightness and the cold. That done with whoever had rubbed them raw with a towel, _they were going to kill that nurse,_ and that done with the traumatising experience in general.

Being given to Masaki Kurosaki, a big blob of reddish blond and pale skin with a Reiatsu that was familiar only because of White’s memories, was a relief. The new mother didn’t try to move them at all, and held them like a statue of crystal sand. She even let the towel cover the top of their head, finally protecting their eyes from the harsh ray of the hospital’s lamps. Their mother was incredibly warm and discreet, talking in a sweet law tone. They finally breathed and immediately fell asleep.

Outside was now calm. But they were still a mess inside.

Three souls, completely different and damaged souls, had become one. Which mean that all memories, impressions, instincts, conscious and unconscious thought and everything else that was in a mind and soul without anyone knowing, had to become one. There was memories of being female, of growing breasts, and memories of being a male that contradicted each other. There was instinct to fight or flee being crushed under the instinct to fight, _hunt and_ _survive_. There was maddening impressions of a time without senses but their senses were fine, no? And there was all _those souls_ that made up his souls, _all those voices_ , shards of personality with which something had to be done. And there was that one, a shard of someone else that still lived outside of this mess.

In other words, what was left of White, Jéna and Yhwach, had to _agree_ on _who they were now._

For that, they latched onto the future. What was left of them was now a whole. And that whole was their base on which they’d built all the rest.

This fifteen of July, Kurosaki Ichigo was born, a perfect rebirth, if they said so themselves.

Dealing with their mess of a soul was unconscious work. It was remembering so much and accepting that everything was their past. It was reacting to something in a way that was familiar without thinking and then reacting in a whole new way. Still, all of that was a lot for such a tiny brain, it was a lot for such a young body too, and so, they slept a lot.

_Sleeping warm and comfy was so nice! And dreams could be so fun!-sleeping was so strange and the dreams so curious and weird-didn’t remember dreaming._

When they didn’t sleep, they had nothing to do anyway. Masaki and Ishin talked to them, and they had two set of memories that let them understand Japanese, but they could only make noises. Their tongue simply couldn’t move enough to shape words. And they needed their teeth to make, like, three quarter of them anyway. But their gums were empty, which was incredibly weird and disturbing.

_How would they eat? Bite?!-It would-Agreed-grow._

They couldn’t move either. Lifting their arms or legs wasn’t too difficult but moving them how they wanted was like being drunk.

Maybe. That was something they didn’t remember ever trying.

And that was all without talking about _their neck_. Not being able to lift it or turn their head was bothersome but they could wait. No. The disturbing part was when someone lifted them, or gave them to someone else. Their neck would sometime fall, or be so lax in that large hand, that they just _knew_ that it didn’t finish growing. And the sensation felt so very wrong!

So instead, when they were up, all they could do was listen to Masaki and Isshin. And let other’s take care of them.

Which, they found out, was not a _pleasant_ experience.

The first time they tasted something, it had been new and familiar. As if they finally could taste again after centuries of nothing. The milk was perfectly recognisable and a discovery at the same time. Still an acquired taste for them too. Tasty but not. And when they finished being so busy with their food, they realised that it wasn’t plastic they were sucking on. It was soft, warm, large and squishy.

They choked on the milk.

They were _breastfeeding!_

The surprise and the awkwardness that came with the realisation was so great they tried to scream, and then began choking on the milk when the thing got in the way. And finally, they began crying because choking in that tiny, weak body was surprisingly painful.

-What’s wrong with her?!

_There was nothing wrong with them, thank you very much. Shut up. -What was happening?! Why? -They were so happy they didn’t have to live through that before and remember._

-She just got surprised buy something. Said Masaki’s sweet voice as she cleaned their mouth and nose - _it came out our nose! -argh-_ manoeuvred them onto her shoulder and tried to encourage a burp from them.

It worked, with mixed result. Surely, they were all happy that they weren’t choking anymore. But they could have done without the mess. Burping had made everything come out, effectively cleaning out their airway, and they could feel the drool and milk dribbling from their mouth and down the woman’s shoulder.

Not having teeth had that weird effect too: they drooled horribly.

-Probably a hiccup. Continued Masaki as she brought them back to her. She probably had it because she was going so fast. She bites a bit too.

-That’s my daughter, so full of energy!

_How youthful? -Oh my god, no-wrong book-good_

-Oh, no. Don’t pout Ichigo-chan! Daddy’s here! Look at daddy! Look, Ichigo-chan!

-You look ridiculous. Laughed Masaki who had finished cleaning herself.

More than those two thinks since they couldn’t see a damn thing. Whatever Isshin was doing was _useless._

-Exactly! Daddy’s so funny! Blhe! Hahaha!

_Argh!_

They burst into a new, surprised, crying fit as Ishin’s laughter came be much too loud and much too near. Masaki brought them away but Isshin was still too loud:

-Oh, no! What did I do? I’m sorry! Ichigo-chan, don’t cry! Daddy’s sorry!

-You idiot! Hissed their mother while their father fussed around them. You’re too loud.

And then they saw a flash of color go from Masaki to Isshin. With a noisy slapping noise.

Masaki had slapped the man upside the head.

_Ha!_

Immediately, crying was replaced by laughter and noise by silence.

-She’s laughing. Came Isshin’s revering voice.

-She’s _laughing._ Was Masaki’s joyous whisper, as if they would stop if they disturbed them. Her _first laugh._ Because you’re being a silly daddy.

The man’s deep chuckle only kept them laughing longer.

It was a few minutes after they stopped laughing that Masaki moved without a word.

-Are you going to follow us, everywhere?

-Yes!

-What a horrible daddy. Murmured Masaki in a conspiring whisper. He won’t let us have mother-daughter time. Won’t even live us for bath time.

_Bath time?!_

Could they skip?

-But I don’t want to miss any part of my daughter’s life! I’d be an even worse Daddy!

And they didn’t want to be put in water. They wouldn’t, right? Just a wet glove and the shower head, right?

_They couldn’t swim! No, wait, they could. Jéna used to swim. – But they were a baby! A full sink would look like the sea!_

And they didn’t particularly like the idea to be naked, or touched that much.

In the end, they were clean. And nothing happened.

_Nothing at all. No. And no, they certainly never soiled in their life! Don’t be ridiculous._

But clearly, having Isshin as a father meant having a crazy clown as a dad. And Masaki, as a mother, was sweet, loving and protective. But they were first time parents. So they didn’t realise that their baby was a bit too calm -not making that much noise-, a bit too quiet-crying only a few times- and a bit too attentive -their head turning always right toward whoever was talking-.

Ichigo didn’t realise it when their power first manifest themselves.

They were in Masaki’s arms, listening to the woman talking about everything under the sun. Their mother didn’t baby-talk to them, but used normal sentences and exaggerated tones instead. Masaki had already described their rooms days ago. As well as Isshin’s, Ichigo’s and her own physical appearance. She had told them they would go home in a few days, that they would have family and friends visiting before that and who were their doctor and nurses. Now she was talking about what see could see happen outside her window.

There was a lot of wind shaking the trees, blooming flowers and a few people passing by.

-Oh, look! Ichigo-chan, this mister is saying hello from there! Say, hello Ichigo-chan! They felt Masaki hold their hand and shake it in a tiny hello. How nice, I think he might be a nurse. He wears a blue uniform under his coat. Let’s talk to him if we ever see him.

Fine. But only because that was really kind. And they wouldn’t be really talking anyway.

And Suddenly, they were _not breathing anymore_. Nor moving. Not a noise either.

They were being _crushed._

_Reiatsu flaring high above others-a god reminding their place-a monster freezing their prey-The master forcing obedience- They couldn’t breath!_

There was someone not too far. They could only see that person with they’re Reiryoku perception. That person’s Reiryoku and Reiatsu was restrained to the point where both looked like it belonged to a regular living plus soul but both _felt so deep and great._

Like a Trench. Thin like a paper cut but deep like the Marianna Trench. It was like they were at the bottom and the pressure was having its effect.

And just as suddenly as they came -entered they perception field- they left.

And they were in the beautiful, blissfully calm underwater world that was the real world with its undisturbed Reiryoku and solid Reishi.

They hadn’t even realised that they could do that. That it was like that.

_Endless desert, sand and air charged around them-Endless luminous void of Reiryoku and Reishi at their fingertips_

Yhwach had been -was?- obviously a master at using Reishi and sensing Reiryoku and Reiatsu. And White had always been able to sense the Reiryoku in the _everything_ of the Hueco Mundo while mastering his Reiatsu Chikaku. But none of them had be able to _sense everything unconsciously._

How lucky! The world was so beautiful like that! It was as calm and as hypnotic as being underwater at sea. It was a bit overwhelming but so relaxing at the same time. The world seemed to, now, be made of light and power. Shimmering and reacting in some sort of shiver, or ripple, to soul’s own Reiryoku.

Ichigo was left speechless.

But they could breathe again and rapidly took one, large, deep gulp of air.

Around them, Masaki’s arms were shaking and their mother seemed terribly distraught while talking to Isshin.

-Why is no one coming? Roared Isshin with the voice that reminded Ichigo that the man was a feared Shinigami Taicho.

-I-Ichigo-chan! Please, please, _please breathe!_

-Masaki! Did she swallow something?

-N-no! I don’t know what happened! Sobbed the woman while Isshin forced their tiny mouth open. She was f-fine! Listening to me and-!

-I can’t see anyth-! Isshin suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. She’s breathing! Masaki, look! Masaki, it’s alright. She’s breathing.

New, dainty fingers replaced the large callused ones that were Isshin’s. Against their lips, and even the arms around them, Masaki was still shaking but sniffing instead of sobbing loudly.

-Good morning! Did you call for help? Intervened someone, nurse or doctor, with a cherry voice.

-Ah, yes-! Began Isshin but Masaki cut him off with a voice piercing like the arrows she had lost.

-And I was told the _emergency button_ was to be used for _emergency_ and would call _a doctor._ But I see you are a nurse!

-I’m sure I can help, ma’am. What’s the issue with the cutie?

-I want a doctor!

-A-ah. What my lovely wife mean is that it seems quite bad. Intervened Isshin. She suddenly stopped breathing. Almost suffocated really but she’s doing it again now. Would you mind calling a doctor?

But really the man didn’t seem to be asking if they judged by his tone alone.

-Well, she probably choked on something and-

-Oh my god! She _did not choke!_ Cried Masaki. Call a doctor!

-R-right!

-And _you._

-H-haï?

-You are calling Kisuke _this instant_ and will ask him to come earlier so he can check it’s not a spiritual related matter.

-Haï! I’ll go right now! H-hum…Do you want to call Ryuken, too?

-No. Kisuke. Now.

-Of course, darling!

Of course, when the doctors came, none of their examination permitted to find out why they stopped breathing. They worried that it could be a form of sleep paralysis and told their parents to keep an eye out for it. On the other hand, when Isshin came back from his call with Urahara, the truth was discovered: Ichigo was sensible to Reiatsu and -Kisuke was very sorry and swore he’d get them something to help- had been crushed by it -even though he had supressed it, he swore he did.

But it was too late. This very night, they fell ill.

At first it was simply the aftershock of dealing with such a crushing Reiatsu, the stress of the day, of almost _dying_ because someone got careless around a spiritual baby, that caught up to them.

But it didn’t stop. And their mind, their messy soul, began to try to sort itself out. Which was why they slept a lot, as we said.

They were a baby, with a tiny, weak body and a tinier, weaker, undeveloped brain. And, in all of that, there was the memories and personality of a godly man more than a thousand years old, the memories and personality of a hollow made out of thousands of different souls, and the memories and personality of a twenty-five otherworldly woman. That was too much. Almost.

So, which one were they anyway? Were they female, male or _didn’t care-it’s non-binary?_ Also, how could they have been a god when they were a woman searching for a job? How could they be killed by a Quincy when they were their god? How could they have a family still alive when they ate the living? How could they be both? How could all three set of memories be true?

_He was hungry, she had what would take the hunger away-She was weak and she wanted so much, they had power and they wanted just as much-He was a shard and she was whole-They had hate and lots of dark things and he was made of it- She felt so much, they felt so little_

_They wanted power-strongest survive-strongest get what they want-they are free_

_They were bored, they didn’t care_

_What was theirs was theirs alone_

_They cared; they were theirs._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reishi is what everything physical is made of in the spiritual world: houses, rock, trees, Shinigami's body, swords, Plus Soul's body, Hollow's body etc... There some of it in the human world, mostly where there's a lot of nature. 
> 
> Reiatsu is the physical representation of a soul's Reiryoku. It's the pression that the Reiryoku aply on others. It's the part of their power that they use. In wiki and Manga, they say that the Reiatsu is felt when used. They also say that you can feel other's Reiatsu. Like it's their life force too, not just their atack power. So i'm not letting be so vague: it is their life force which they use to fight. Reiatsu is the power in use, the power felt, the physical and spiritual aura.
> 
> It can also have different colors and, sometimes, take a shape in manga. But for more realism, it will not do so in my work. It just doesn't make sense to me: what is the use of the shape? Nothing. Not when the color is already here to signify a change. As well as the Reiatsu signature, which is unique to each soul and change with their health.
> 
> Reiatsu can arm others: from crushing them to death under the pressure to just being felt depending of the difference in power and in pressure. If the two soul use the same amount of pressure, their both fine, but if one is more powerful and use more pressure, they can crush the other one. 
> 
> Reiryoku is a soul's whole energy, all their life force. When the Reiatsu is used, the Reiryoku may not be completly used. If you have enough Reiryoku while alive, you become spiritually aware. If you have enough dead, you can become a Shinigami. The Reiryoku is also heavily linked to willpower. 
> 
> "Reiatsu Chikaku" mean Spiritual Pressure Perception so i used it based on the name. On the other hand Reikaku mean Spiritual Sense which i use the same way. In canon Reiakaku is a sense used unconsciously. Ichigo is now the exception.
> 
> If you want more details, don't hesitate to check the Wiki which I use as a references.
> 
> Here's something important i got to say: Thank you. There's a lot of people who left kudos, comments, made bookmarks... And i'm just very thankful. Really. I Hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones that Come next! 
> 
> See ya ~


	3. In a time where they got to tell the tale: White's lucky tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if?   
> White, Jéna and Yhwach aren't gone. This is White and how they get along with them.

White can’t still comprehend how lucky he is. All the Hollow are hungry and searching to get their heart back. It’s the rule. But with Jéna with him, he gets her heart. So it’s fine.

The plus soul is just strong enough to survive under their Reiatsu but not a fighter. She’d never wield a sword properly unless taught. And she’s frail, so thin he’s always careful with his claw and his strength when he hold her. But she’s a survivor, she’d bite if cornered. He like how she copy him. He love how he can hear her heartbeat in his chest _and_ in hers.

 _Liking and loving._ Instead of being hungry and angry. That’s new and incredible and peaceful. That’s new too, peaceful. Even with the plus, food really, under his nose and the quincy king, enemy, at his side.

Yhwach, the quincy, is their peace. Surprisingly. He’s the reason why he didn’t crush or eat Jéna automatically. He’s the reason why all the souls he brought with him aren’t overwhelming them and driving them crazy. He’s the reason he can understand Jéna half the time.

The other half, it’s Jéna that make him understand the king. White was just instinct. Jéna was heart, not just love but hate too and everything in between. Yhwach was…

_Wise_

Yes, that. Instinct, heart and wise. Perfect mix. They just had to look at the three of them.

_But who will know?_

No Idea. They’d see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't really a proper chapter, more of an Omake/Bonus. It isn't quite a part of the universe either: white, Jéna and Ywach aren't actually living side by side in Ichigo's mind or something like that. But it helps explain how the three souls fusing together to make Ichigo was possible.   
> I made this because I had it in mind. I'll make others like that because I have a few other ideas that I like. Tell me what you think. Also, not to worry, I’m still working on the actual second chapter: it's coming. I swear.
> 
> ALSO: big thanks to everyone!!! For every comment, every bookmark, every kudos and even the hits (even thought I don't if you liked or have read my work)! Each and every one of them is something that I truly cherish. So, thank you, really. I particularly like those constructive comment I saw: thank you very much!


	4. Of old and new things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're finally home!  
> But there's a problem: they're not ill for no reason.
> 
> Omake/ Bonus: Jéna like to make horrible puns and jokes. Yhwach deal with it.

While being ill, everything was very confusing for Ichigo.

Their baby body made it possible to know what was happening around them only through what they heard. But when they fell ill, all their brain power seemed gone, their thought process muddled by headache and feverish sleep. They heard still but they didn’t get it.

So when they opened their eyes, there weren’t any difference between reality seen and dreams. They didn’t realise they could see anew.

And when they woke up for the first time with no fever and no headache, they automatically tried to get up, adults souls forgetting the tiny body waiting to see bone fingers or flesh slender ones, and had the surprise to actually manage to do so.

When, now that they could think, last time they tried they couldn’t. Couldn’t even list their head or move more than swing their arms and legs around. When had they learned to _sit up?_

_What a pleasant surprise_

Just as surprising was the fact that they were in a house now, and not at the hospital. Then Ichigo realised that they could feel puffy elastic holding her hair in two pigtails. All signs that _quite a bit of time had passed._

So, the question needed asking, and answering.

**_What the bloody fuck happened to us?!_ **

What happened to them to make them ill and keep them ill for months to the point of being bedridden.

_Hollow don’t fall ill-Neither do gods-We **better** end up with my immune system_

They didn’t remember ever falling ill, not more than a having a nose full for a few days or a headache gone after a good sleep at least. So missing month of times because of an unknow illness.

They felt like swearing. A lot.

Now that they were much better, they could go back to watching Isshin be such an idiot it was painful and listen to Masaki tell them about everything under the sun. They also decided to occupy their time with crawling training, very fun, and discovering the house.

 _Even more fun_ was Masaki’s game of chase.

It’s a simple game. They try to go in another room for one reason or another, Masaki realise their gone – or decide she gave them enough time, really- and run after them. Once their mother gets them, she lifts them high and try to make them laugh. Then they start all over again.

It’s not that fun.

Thing is, they are an adult playing the game in a baby’s body you’re more annoyed at being _so slow_ and clumsy that the game hasn’t got even a _snowball chance_ to be anywhere near fun. Instead it’s like hellish training, _fleeing from their mother as a baby,_ and horrible reminder of their inability to be independent.

God damn it, they don’t even get a meter away from the door before Masaki is either following curiously or taking them back inside.

In the end, they _do_ discover the whole house. Just not on their own. There are two locked rooms with the keys in the corridor’s cupboard, sometime Masaki or Isshin check those rooms to find something so either they forgot it there before baby-proofing the house or it’s a storage room for now. The parent’s room is quite big and comfortable for the adults: they added to the regular furniture a little cosy loveseat that make them envious.

They wanted that in their room. And a couch. They’d live in a castle. With lot’s of stuff.

_Wantwantwantwantwantwant-She wanted that, it was so pretty!-They waited for him in his personal lounge._

The nursery was nice through. It looked kind of princess themed with the old-fashioned furniture decorated with arabesque. The bed was made out of clear wood with a white transparent and sparkling canopy. The bed’s cover was all with or cream with lease. There was medieval-looking rocking chair with a lot of fluffy pillow. The carpet followed the same color theme and were silky soft. The changing table, the dresser, the bookshelf and the chest full of toys were also either white or cream with silver or white motif.

And there was also an enormous bear. Which would be terrifying in the dark of the night. Oh dear.

The bathroom was a simple thing if traditional. Which mean the bath was to bath and the shower with the stool to shower and let the water fall to the floor.

Which made Ichigo miss the Europeans showers they remembered. Even more the ones Jéna had known: with different stream of water, temperature control, seats, and the bath to save the rest of the room from inundation.

On the ground floor there was the kitchen, the living room and the dinner room. There was a heavy door that seemed to lead to the adult’s medical clinic and Ichigo was very happy to stay away.

There would be people visiting there. Urgh.

The Kitchen was fairly large with an _actual bar_ next to which Ichigo’s was sometime put in their high chair if not next to the table in the dinner room. Both of those rooms where open on each other, with a wide window bringing light and giving a view of the flowery garden.

Obviously, Masaki kept her house pretty and clean because every rooms where tastefully decorated without even a speck of dust floating around. She already had baby pictures on the walls to keep company to the pictures of her pregnancy, wedding and diploma giving ceremony. And the garden had perfectly mowed green grass, pretty flowers everywhere and perfectly cut bush keeping the outside world away _._

But the living room was their favourite. There they could steal a book, hide in a corner, and read something stimulating for their adult mind. Masaki and Isshin had bought a lot of baby books -which were so boring Ichigo wanted to turn off their whole body just to _not_ listen-, they were all in the nursery and used every night if Masaki didn’t tell them about a tale the woman knew by heart. And they recognise each and every one as Quincy’s history and legends and children’s tale to introduce this or that tradition or technique.

_Ransötengai, the man could not move according to his own will anymore, armies becoming puppets in his hands, friends becoming traitors under his will._

_Fat and prideful noble hunting on noble horses foxes for their tails while he, god, and they, superior living, hunted monsters to protect. White capsule exploding in their fingers_

_The Echt, best of his children, proving betters than others again and again. Kurosaki the heirs, Ishida the cunning, Katagiri the healers, Barro the loyals…_

_Kaiser Gesang, nine hundred years and regain his heart, ninety days and regain his power, nine days and regain his kingdom._

_Bite clean and skin healing under white gauze but power disappearing like a candle blown._

_The sky alight with power, bodies clad in white falling to the ground._

_You should have never done that!_

It’s like a slap to the face, and then it’s like their brain’s been shaken like a rattle. Above them, Masaki put a cool hand to their forehead and purse her lips in worry:

-You’re a bit warm, Ichigo-chan. Maybe you’re just tired but kaa-chan’ll give you something just in case, ok? Then you go to sleep, I can tell you the rest of the story tomorrow.

Really, they loved hearing those in their mother’s voice too. It helped them. Not to remember, not quite, but to access the memories. It was all so confusing in there.

_He was an Emperor-Monster! -Me? -A god! -Him! Monstrous, cruel, unjust-He was right she was just a human-wasn’t he? Why angry? Power-had no right! -had all rights! -No loyalty-wouldn’t dare-feared was better-loved was greater!_

Forget their mysterious illness, or weakness or whatever, growing teeth as a baby was worse. Baby bodies were apparently very sensible, ridiculously so.

So their gums were swollen and a deep, dark, red and painful and making them drool horribly. Chewing on something _did not_ help make it feel better and they felt like their jaws were heavy and their cheeks big like chipmunk’s.

Isshin, that idiot, kept giving stuff to chew on, even his finger -which, _no_ , they would _not_ chew, _they didn’t know where it had gone!_ \- while Masaki, ever the smarter one, kept giving them ice-cream or ice chips to suck on. If not, their mother would get a pacifier out of the fridge were she now stored them.

They looked ridiculous with the rows of baby teeth full of holes. The view was disturbing on multiple levels, it was incredible.

It came out of nowhere too! They were sucking on a bottle of milk one second and the next, they and Masaki moved wrong, the bottle’s nipple touched just the right spot in the gums. _The wrong spot_ under which a growing tooth had been hiding.

And now they needed more pacifier because they kept shredding them. Isshin had brought one and was presenting it proudly.

-Look, Ichi-tan! Tou-chan brought a special one! It won’t break!

No kidding. Even Yhwach, who had lived centuries ago and without a dog, wouldn’t have been fooled.

In solid plastic, bright red and with protrusions to make for a better grip. A large ring twice the size of Isshin’s hand. As in, he could hold half and…

And _the dog could tug on the other half._ That was a _dog’s toy_.

_She used to give human’s stuff to her dog!_

They took the ring, threw at the man with a, impressively good, growl and immediately entered the kitchen in a rage.

-Kaa-an!

They hid behind their mother’s legs, regardless of the fact that the woman was cooking and didn’t want Ichigo so near, if not in the kitchen at all. They threw one last glower at their astonished father, whose nose was actually red, and firmly pressed their face against their kaa-chan’s legs to ignore him.

_For the rest of the day._

And probably tomorrow too.

-Did she. Began Masaki’s voice above them. Did she.

-She’s standing up. And Isshin’s was a strange strangled whisper.

They didn’t really get why that was important. Stupid gene-giver. Why did their Kaa-chan had to stay with him again?

_Kurosaki Karin. Spiritually aware. Kurosaki Yuzu. Not spiritually aware._

The twins weren’t born. Right. And they were still linked.

_But I’m here. Not with her._

So they were just waiting for the twins.

-She _walked_ here. Masaki, I swear. She walked here _all the way from the living room._

-But she talked too. Didn’t she?! Ichigo, sweety, what did you say?!

Suddenly, they were in Masaki’s arms and the woman threw them an eager, hopeful look.

-Did you say kaa-chan!?

-What?! I thought it was just a scream!

-Ichigo-chan? Do you wanna say, kaa-chan?

With a smile, they shook their head. Why would they?

-Do you. Do you want to say something to Kaa-chan?!

Kaa-chan and Isshin looked _so impatient_ and so _desperate._

If only they could say a whole sentence. That’d be fun.

-Kaa-an. They said, frowning heavily and pointing at Isshin. Baka.

Isshin immediately began crying. Inside, they were cackling and howling with joy.

And then they began to cry, throw a tantrum really, while repeating “Baka! Baka!”.

Suffice to say, Isshin wasn’t being dramatic anymore when he began to mope in the corner.

They stopped when kaa-chan got enough of a hold on them to hug them properly. Kaa-chan hugs were that nice and they never had enough of hugs.

Omake/ Bonus

If They lived to live the tale

-Oh bear. I don’t like that. In the dark, we’re just going to see something enormous. Big monster. I did that when I was a kid. Sorry.

Black arms of armoured bones tug on Jéna’s legs and the blond turn to face White. The Hollow tip his head to the side and he’s near enough one of his horns touch the skin of her forehead. His shoulders are tensed and he growl threatenly.

On the side, Yhwach is a shadow. Always mingling in what they don’t see or at her back.

-You literally have a monster attached to you. He rumbles with a deadpan.

\- Oh bear. Breathe the young woman. She tugs on the hollow limbs to make him hold onto her arms instead, which he does with reticence.

-I heard your terrible pun the first time.

And there’s a light laugh ringing through nothingness. It’s not pretty nor ugly, it’s notes jumps sometimes horribly higher. But it’s as good as listening to tinkling bells. Even with the low, growling rumble of the hollow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, a few explanations. Again, you can check the wiki or the manga for more. 
> 
> Kaiser Gesang:  
> Within Quincy legend, there is a song known as the Kaiser Gesang which speaks of a sealed king. According to the song, the seal would be broken and the king would regain his heart after 900 years. 90 years after, his intellect would return. And 9 years afterwards, his power would return. To regain his powers, the king would have to steal the powers of impure Quincy. This legend was proven true when Yhwach stole Masaki Kurosaki's and Kanae Katagiri's powers. However, according to Yhwach, there is an additional part of this song: 9 days after he regains his power, the emperor will regain the world. 
> 
> Ransôtengai :  
> "Heavenly wild puppet suit", It’s a very rare and advanced Quincy technique that permit one to control broken limbs or body with Reishi threads. Usually, it’s aparently used more so a Quincy can still move after grave wounds since they only need to use their will for this technique. But by the sound of it, there clearly nothing stopping them from taking hold of somoene else body unless the one they try to control can fight against the threads with his Reiroku or his body’s streng, or even by taking hold of the technique and breaking it. Which should be rare in the last case. And how many people would be powerful enough to fight Yhwach’s Ransôtengai ? Well, we can count them on one hand and that’s counting everyone throught the centuries. 
> 
> I also abso-lu-tly have to thank you all for your support. More than 500 hits?! 55 kudos!? Those are important numbers to hit so i'm very grateful to all of you.  
> And i HAVE to give special thanks to the 27 subscriptions, 24 bookmarks, and the three new comments!  
> Because i'm forgetting NONE of you and i'm listening and watching, I swear!  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and what comme next!


	5. Masaki's love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Masaki's favorite is Ichigo. She decide that Ichigo should be everyone's favorite.

Kurosaki Ichigo may have been named the first protector but Masaki would always be her child’s first protector.

Like so many mothers, Masaki pregnancy was a bothersome and happy experience. The birth was painful but a so very, incredibly, marvellous, joyful memory. Even if her baby had, at first, scared her and everyone in the room by staying silent. Masaki was still persuaded that Ichigo had been either mischievous or that stubborn already.

Ichigo was Masaki’s miracle.

A head of orange hair - _orange,_ who ever saw that? - and her amber eyes. She had her nose too, thin and just a bit turned up, and tiny _everything._ How could she be so tiny? The doctors kept saying she was quite the big baby but Masaki didn’t believe a word of it. Ichigo had her eyes shaped more like her father too and hair as messy as his. But since the color was so clear maybe it came from her side of the family? Masaki was a dark strawberry blond, almost a red-head, after all. Almost orange like her child. Her baby girl.

But Masaki wasn’t blind to what Ichigo’s birth had done. Her baby was a hybrid, made between to different and opposite race. Her father didn’t even have a real body. And none of her parents were healthy souls, what with their sealed and weakened powers. Yet Ichigo was healthy and already holding a strong, healthy Reiryoku.

Worse, and Masaki didn’t know whether to cry or be in awe before it, the Hollow’s parasite was _gone._ Masaki couldn’t feel it’s stain weakening her soul or fighting the seal made of Isshin’s power anymore. The mother couldn’t feel it inside her child either but were else would it have gone? Ichigo’s soul had been unprotected, Masaki realised it too late. She felt foolish to not realise the danger to her child.

And yet Ichigo was healthy and without a taint.

Instead her baby felt strong. Like holding a little ball of churning power. It didn’t even feel Quincy or Shinigami. But maybe she was just too young for that.

So Ichigo had, somehow, absorbed the hollow safely. And she was twice, no trice, the miracle she was because of it.

_Masaki would never know but her child’s salvation would always be thanks to Zangetsu._

But what Masaki loved the most about her child was that little Ichigo was already _so smart._

As a new-born in her arms, Ichigo would only move for the sound of the world. Other babies kept putting their fist in their mouths and try to listen to everything. Ichigo would focus on voices with perfect accuracy and listen to doors opening and _react_ to it. Then a toddler running from her father on all four, Ichigo was clearly disinterest in all things made for babies. Ichigo already had clear like and dislike. For example, Isshin’s antics were not fun at all. But the soft furry cover on the sofa was great.

Ichigo didn’t do anything extraordinary. Really, only her dislike for all baby toys and books was odd. But she just had such an expressive look in her eyes that Masaki couldn’t help but adore her more for it.

Masaki didn’t have to wait for her baby to grow to know what kind of person she was. Ichigo had already quite the personality.

Who, sadly, seemed to prefer to _be left alone._

Until Masaki became the preferred parent and a great shield against Isshin. Then the baby began to listen to her, to ask for her, to hug her.

To talk for the first time _to call her kaa-chan._

So when Masaki wanted to play with Ichigo, she didn’t play, she held her child close and told her about the Quincys. Some stories of war became children’s tales, other already were children tales told to Masaki by her own mother. There was a few songs and legends too. And, surprisingly, Ichigo listened to the few boring explanation of tradition as well.

Masaki wasn’t even aware that Isshin had never heard her talk about Quincy to Ichigo. She wasn’t aware either, that Isshin didn’t tell her Shinigami’s stories and had none to tell anyway.

So when Isshin entered the room, Masaki continued to explain to Ichigo about the Quincy’s star, hers turning slowly in the air from her wrist right before her baby’s eyes.

-Masaki! Thundered Isshin so suddenly, that both girls jumped.

Masaki took her child closer to her, in a protective hold, but calmed when she recognised her husband. Ichigo, unseen, was gaping at her father and frowning at the same time.

\- “Isshin? What’s wrong?” Asked the woman.

\- “What are you teaching Ichigo?!”

\- “Huh? It’s just a little children’s tale about the Quincy star. I thought it was cute so I was telling Ichigo. It’s a tale about how the stars aren’t just in the sky and.”

\- “Masaki!” Cut Isshin with a worried look toward Ichigo. “I thought we weren’t telling her _anything_ about the spiritual world, remember?”

\- “What?” She frowned. “When did we decide that? I don’t remember ever talking about that.”

\- “We did when you discovered you were pregnant, Masaki.” Insisted the man.” I said I’d protect you two from the spiritual world.”

\- “ _That’s_ not the same as _telling her nothing!”_

By now, both parents were gesticulating wildly and almost screaming to talk over each other.

\- “And that we’d live happy _human’s_ lives!”

\- “We’re not humans, Isshin!”

\- “Without our powers, we’re as good as!”

\- “It’s still not the same!”

\- “So what?! You want to bring a baby into all this?!”

\- “I was born into this!”

\- “And look where it got you! Arranged wedding! Soul suicide! Last of the family!”

\- “Happily married and lucky mother! Yes, I see the _horror_ of the situation!”

\- “I want her to have a _normal_ childhood!”

\- “You don’t even know what that is.”

\- “We have to try! Doesn’t she have the right to have a happy carefree childhood?”

\- “We aren’t going to train a child soldier, Isshin. Well, I’m not.”

\- “What?” And this, time, Isshin seemed astonished, all anger gone like a flame extinguished.

\- “You think I didn’t hear you talk to Urahara-san?” Spat Masaki. “Do you think Masaki should come to have a check-up with you or Tessaï, Urahara? When do you think you can come judge Ichigo’s Reiryoku, Urahara? Do you think he already know she’s born, Urahara? Does her reaction to you mean she’s weak, Urahara?”

\- “Masaki, I’m just worried because she’s a hybrid.”

\- “Don’t take me for a fool! You’re worried she doesn’t have a lot of Reiryoku. I don’t know what you and Urahara are planning but must I remind you that she’s not a weapon but your _daughter!”_

\- “Masaki, if I can’t defend her then I want her to be able to defend herself.”

\- “Then, why do you not want her to learn about being a Quincy or a Shinigami. Are you telling me you told her nothing about your family or the Shinigami’s clan? Isshin, I know she’s a baby and that she won’t remember but telling her some things is good. She’ll grow into it better that way.”

\- “I want her to be a child! Not a fighter, not a Quincy, not a Shinigami, not a little noble of soul society but one of the children that you see playing in the street!”

\- “And suddenly she’ll talk to a ghost and scare everyone without understanding it. Or She’ll see a Hollow and realise to late that she needs to run!”

\- “As if we’d let that happen. She won’t even see or attract attention until she’s a teen at most!”

\- “So she shouldn’t grow knowing who she is? Knowing about her family? I know you still have relative on the other side. So have I with Ryuken and his little family. Should we never meet? Cut all ties? If that’s the case, no more Urahara either, Isshin. And then, what? Surprise once she’s eighteen? Or Older? Or when she’s dead? Or when she realises _you are not growing old?”_

\- “We need Urahara’s help, Masaki. Without him we wouldn’t be here.”

\- “And without being a Quincy and a Shinigami we would never have met, never had the need to link our souls, never made something as great as Ichigo! She as the right to know! What if not knowing affect her powers? Quincy need years of careful training! What if she decides to play with Reiryoku behind our backs?”

\- “If she doesn’t know, she won’t realise it’s here to play with.”

\- “That’s nonsense!” Screamed the woman, getting up in a surge of anger.

Ichigo latched into her shirt and she lifted her up more securely against her, putting a protective hand around her head. Masaki felt like she should flee. She knew Isshin as a Husband. He was lovely, protective, and fun. She loved him.

But as a father, he kept disappointing her.

\- “Masaki, put Ichigo to bed. That’s enough of this. I said no talk of the spiritual and that’s it.”

\- “Are you giving me _orders!_?”

\- “I said no, Masaki. I’ll take Ichigo away from you if I have to.”

\- “Excuse me!? _What did you just say?!”_

\- “I’ll protect Ichigo, Masaki! If it means I have to protect her from you as well, then so be it!”

Masaki simply could not talk through her feeling for a minute. She was as horrified as she was terrified. Full of wrath, anger and determination.

\- “Not If I take Ichigo away from you first.”

\- “What? Masa-.”

She pushed past Isshin as fast as she could, pushing him to the side for good measure, and fled out the house without listening to his call.

He didn’t follow her. She sniffed with disdain, her idiot husband probably thought she’d come back. Maybe because she took nothing with her.

_How dare he?!_

Ichigo was going to stay with her. _She_ was going to stay with Ichigo.

She knew Isshin hadn’t be doing good with Ichigo. But she had through it was because he was a first-time father! Trying to plays games with Ichigo that she clearly didn’t like or trying to force her to play with him. Bathing her in the bath with too much water and without the holder. Not using the baby shampoo and letting some into her eyes. Leaving her on the changing table. Holding her under the arms instead of under the bum with a hand at her back. Trying to give her solid food in pieces too big. Giving her a dog’s chew toy.

It was a lot but it wasn’t that bad. He was clumsy, inexperienced and a bit too forceful but it was full of good intention and not too bad.

But then he’d ignore Ichigo crying, and Ichigo cried when she really needed something, even in the middle of the night while she was tired. And next she’d catch him on the phone with Urahara, talking about Ichigo’s progress. To Isshin she was weird and the kind of baby who didn’t want to learn the colour’s name. She wasn’t smart, she was momma’s baby girl hiding in her mother’s skirt, she wasn’t a fighter born. When was Urahara coming to fix her?

Well, Masaki was going to Urahara. And she was going to fix _him._

She’d deal with her husband later. Powerless as he was, he could wait for her at home. If he was smart, he’d take the time to think about what he did.

Finding Urahara’s strange and obscure shop was a bit hard, her senses still much too weak to find him from the other side of town where she lived and her vague memories of Isshin’s words about it not much help. But in the end, she did it.

And fast enough that Isshin’s hadn’t told Urahara everything and made the man wait for her at his counter. Instead, she found his worker Tsukabishi-san.

“-I will talk with Uaraha-san.” She declared, because she didn’t care if anyone was ok with it: it was happening. “If you would call him, Tsukabishi-san. Please.”

“-No need, Kurosaki-san!” Cut in a joyous voice and Urahara-san opened the door behind Tsukabishi-san to welcome her. “It’s a pleasure to see you! Oh, and little Kurosaki-san!”

The blond Shinigami in his gigaï bend to smile at the baby and that’s when Masaki realised her error: the last time those two came near each other, Urahara’s Reiatsu crushed her baby. For one second, she thought her baby had been silently choking in her arms but Ichigo was watching the man with wide eyes.

She looks completely at ease if completely focused on the Shinigami, which isn’t weird for her little girl. Behind his fan and under the brim of his hat, Urahara-san seem to see the same thing. She’s sure he’s happily realising that Ichigo’s Reiatsu is growing great and fast.

“-What can I do for you, Kurosaki-san?”

“-We need to talk.” She answers firmly. “About ridiculous, outrageous ideas you put in my husband’s head and how you two treat children.”

“-Ah…But I only sell candy?” Asked the man with a tilt of his head. “If it’s about crushing little kurosaki-san with my Reiatsu, _I really am sorry._ I came suppressing my power, just in case, and I was caught off guard by little kurosaki-san’s sensibility. I would _never_ arm her like that.”

And he looked honest. Kind of. Masaki did believe he didn’t mean to hurt her child. But that he was regretful? That man was smart, manipulating, and maybe a bit sociopathic. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was lying and, in truth, unable to feel sorry.

“-But plan for a future of war for her, you would and you _do_.” Hissed Masaki, holding her child more closely. “You _did._ Don’t try to deny it! Isshin keep _reporting_ to you on the phone. Behind my back too! He keeps worrying over Ichigo’s strength, intelligence and even more about her Reiatsu. Where you really suppressing your Reiatsu or were you judging her reaction and Reiatsu?”

Urahara’s smile disappear behind his fan but his eyes stay half-closed by it:

“-What ridiculous thing as Kurosaki-san done, now? I remember you would complain or laught quite a bit.”

Masaki has to stop herself from honestly answering. As angry as she is against _both_ men, only one is before her. She’ll only hold him accountable for what he actually did. So she square her shoulder and face him head on.

He’s the smartest here. If she let him, he’ll make her forget all her righteous anger.

“-What Isshin has done isn’t important to you, Urahara-san. He’ll deal with the consequences of his actions. And so are you.”

She’s bluffing a bit too much. She’s powerless. It’s not Isshin who could ruin her, take Ichigo away and destroy her life. It’s Urahara Kisuke. The man in question doesn’t look like he is smiling anymore. His eyes are two simple beacons in the shadows of his hat and his fan still hide the rest of his face.

“-I made tea, if you would come this way. Kurosaki-san, Urahara-dono.”

The duo of adults turn and it’s Tsukabishi-san in the doorway. Masaki hadn’t even realised he was gone but she immediately takes the opportunity.

“Oh, thank you very much, Tsukabishi-san! I missed your delicious tea.” She smiles as she passes by both men to get to the other room.

It’s a simple and traditional living room. There are enough cushions in a corner for it to be a nest of comfort when you want and the table hold both tea and threat ranging from an actual cake to candies. Masaki take a seat on one of the cushions and put Ichigo down carefully. The baby simply go around the table, careful of her wobbly steps, until she encounter Tsukabishi-san who offer his hands as support.

“- Well done, Kurosaki-san.” The giant man says and, somehow, manage to communicate enough cheer to the baby for her to understand through his usual facade. “You’re very young to walk already. It’s very impressive.”

Masaki drink her tea. At the first sip, she calms down and realise she didn’t confront Urahara-san the right way. She’ll probably need to finish the cup and plan _something._ But the man is incredibly smart, Isshin said so and she always could see it. So she has to find something to do that Urahara can’t stop from happening. That he can’t stop from being effective either.

She watches her baby with Tsubakishi-san. Usually, the giant act like the best servant in the world. He serves everyone tea -cups are already served- and push the sweets their ways -the plates are already exactly were needed- all the while ensuring that every other luxury possible to give are given. Right now, he seems to have forgotten everything about it and let Ichigo play with his large hands. She put her tiny hand in the middle of his and watch the result. She looks incredibly tiny, fragile and cute with him as a contrast. Then she smiles and Tsukabishi-san seems quite taken.

She turns her gaze on Urahara-san just a little and hope he doesn’t see. He’s watching child and giant too. But he look like he’s analysing something rather than just enjoying the view of a cute baby.

What could make him stop? She has no way to overpower him. She never had, not against a Taicho. And outsmart him? She doesn’t know how far his genius goes but he created a whole, functioning, healthy artificial body so she doesn’t think she’s smarter.

Ichigo climb over Tsukabishi-san and both, socially correct, adults in the room melt at the cute view. Babies are just always cute.

Unless they’re brats. There was one at the hospital.

They watch Ichigo walk again, Masaki and Urahara still enjoying their respective tea.

Questions burn Masaki’s tongues. Questions that would burn Urahara-san, she hopes. Why does he ask a child to save him, the adult? For what fight does he want to take her child to? What make him gamble on her child when he’s a so strong and smart? Obviously, the idiot made a bet: _that Ichigo would be become more powerful than he._

And she’s just a baby walking on wobbly step. Sometimes tripping. Like right now.

Right, _into Urahara-san’s lap._

The man catches her at the last second, more a reflex than anything. Falling on him would have cushioned the fall rather than hurt. Nonetheless, his hands are now secure around her little back and her head -which is unnecessary but Masaki catch how careful he is- and his tea is all over the floor by his side.

Tsukabishi-san is already gone and back, moping the floor. But Urahara-san watch the baby in his lap with wide eyes.

It looks like he was Ichigo’s ultimate goal all along, as she’s quite happy to settle in his lap, long finger holding her like precious stones, and smile wide at the man above her. A man who’s simply, completely, lost by the looks of it.

Masaki is watching with a new hope in her eyes. She can’t stop Urahara.

But can she make him _pay back his debt ?_

Could she transform him into _Ichigo’s ally_ instead of just the man who want to use her? After all, he wants her to win his battle for him. Can’t he ensure that she survive?

Right now, Ichigo is _cuddling with Urahara-san_ and he _let her._

“-I deduce by your silence that you don’t intend to reveal you’re Oh-so-great-plan.” Begin Masaki with a mocking tone before she stares right at him. “But I’d like to…”

She can’t outright ask. It’s seems too much to hope for. That and, why would he do it when the plan has always been to use Ichigo? To make her fight. To make her win. To make her save them.

\- “To point out the stupidity of it” She settle on and drink her tea to look away.

Next to them, Tsukabishi-san twitch.

\- “Stupidity?” Urahara-san ask carelessly.

\- “Well, yes. It’s full of flaws.” She answers, matter of facts. “How can it work if you intend to make Ichigo grow without any training? Without knowledge of the spiritual world at all? Or of her heritage?”

She’s half-ways through her words when Urahara-san choke on his drool. It’s the first time she sees him losing his footing.

\- “I was under the impression that it would not be the case.”

\- “Isshin doesn’t agree. He threatened to take her away from me.”

And she never imagined he would be angry. Because, that’s what it is. He hides under the shadows of his fan and hat, his shoulder rigid and his arm around the baby in a secure hold. The wood in the fan crack in his hold.

\- “I do believe” He says slowly. “that Shiba-san and I need to have a talk. You’re welcome to stay for dinner, Kurosaki-san.”

\- “Only if you put up with my clingy daughter.” Masaki can’t help but laugh. “Seems like she decided she love you.”

All eyes lower on the child. She’s not playing with Urahara-san’s sleeve anymore. Instead, she’s holding onto his front for dear life, little golden eyes drooping and blinking tiredly as she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you have it. I hope you like this chapter. Tell me what you think!
> 
> Also, Rickrossed told me i should write my dialogues with the sign " " instead of just the sign -. I saw that and got hit by the realisation: "They're right!". So i did it. But it's the first time i use those signs so i'm not sure i use them correctly. Even more so in the fast exchange. So tell me what you think! And thanks Rickrossed for the good idea!
> 
> By the way, the sotry about the Quincy star? Completely made up. 
> 
> Just as important: I give my heartfelt thanks to the people! The number of kudos, subscriptions, hits and bookmarks keep growing ! Thanks a lot!


	6. School days, first try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yhwach love to learn. Jéna hate school. And White doesn't know who's right.  
> Worse even, Mom caught them. Or is it for the better?

When they end up before the school, they feel like their heart is a stone trying to sink to their stomach and then their feet.

Ywach never had gone to school but he valued knowledge and never thought badly of the memories full of tutors teaching that he would take from his followers.

White never knew school but through chaotic and hazy memories of long halls full of people and boring Shinigami spewing a few titbits of interesting knowledge. He didn’t care about it. Didn’t even acknowledge what he had. He couldn’t.

Jéna had gone to school up to college. She remembered it just fine and she had learned a lot of valuable things. But she had hated every boring lecture, every failure never understood, every exercise taking more time of her day, every exam giving even more stress.

So Ichigo valued knowledge but was very, _very,_ reluctant and wary about school. They had already an education and more! What Jéna’s memories didn’t give them, Ywach vaguer one’s did! Going to school would be redundant.

They already didn’t like this place. Jéna’s memories of school were full of not too big buildings of red bricks and a courtyard with trees, grass and flowers. This school was enormous, perfectly white and modern, with a courtyard with maybe a few decorative trees on the front and that was all. And you had to wear a uniform. And the schedule was as weird as the year’s-school in summer, seriously- without looking at the classes to start with.

They’d have to clean the classroom. For some bullshit reason about showing respect and proving responsibility. That was all nice and good but They were both a kid and not their cleaning lady.

_And the rebirth of both a god **and a monster. Fuck you very much.** They had no need for school._

Then Ichigo had to deal with the kids and the caretakers who wanted them to play with the kids.

All those babies walking on two legs looked, for the young hybrid, like aliens. Half of them talked in an incomprehensible blabber they ended up ignoring, much to they’re hire. The others, able to talk, seemed to be the annoying ones: either plain stupid or stupidly mean. A few girls tried to play dolls with them, making the princess marry their prince and become fairies. A few boys tried to roughhouse with them.

And just two hours after arriving and refusing to do anything but draw and train her writing, they counted three girls mocking her hair and one boy tugging them.

One more tug and they’d tear his off.

After one more hour of fighting to be left alone to their activity, one of the caretakers stayed with her and worked on making her draw a bit in between the writing.

That’s when a commotion happened.

The three girl that had mocked Ichigo’s hair, where now mocking another girl with the help of two new friends. The victim, not letting herself be bothered, was screaming at them and insulting them the best she could as a child. Yet, she still had tear running down from her pretty crimson eyes.

Ichigo was mature enough to know the girls where jealous. First of Ichigo’s bright hair, then of that girl’s own unique deep color.

They were a deep, pretty pink tint in pigtails whose hair bands mimicked flowers that matched her eyes rather well. It matched even better with her white dress which was embroided with golden treads and had puffed up sleeves. She held a plush of a cute white lucky cat.

With everyone watching, the caretakers got the bullies always, scolding them and sending them away to play. Calming the pink haired child was harder. She was visibly upset and didn’t want anyone near her anymore. That’s when the caretaker who had been trying to befriend Ichigo managed to drag her to the hybrid’s table.

-How about you just stay here and draw something pretty, Riruka-chan?

The woman put a sheet of paper and a few bright pencils under the crying child’s nose, who looked at it with an angry frown. She took hold of none of them and turned her gaze toward Ichigo.

They stared at each other a moment. Then the little girl spoke:

“Who are you?”

“Kurosaki Ichigo.”

“Kuro…Ichigo…” Mumbled the little girl, eyes flying over Their hair and faces. “So many colors…I’m Dokugamine Riruka!”

“Aha..Nice to meet you?” They answered before bending over their papers again.

Their penmanship wasn’t as shaky as before. But some curves were hard to do -and done wrong really- while every line were too deep and too dark. They were using too much strength on the pen. They took another sheet and began again.

Yhwach hands used to fly other all types of papers with a brush in all writings he knew from German to Japanese passing by French and English. All lines would be done fluidly and fast but with a strong stroke of the brush’s hair on the support.

They began to write every kanji over and over again. Fuidly and light of hand but not fast. The shaking and wobbling of the lines came back but no curves were done as horribly wrong. They should write like Yhwach does.

“Ichigo-chan! Look at Riruka-chan’s drawing! Isn’t it cute?”

Urgh. They didn’t want to. They lifted their eyes anyway, curious and knowing they wouldn’t be left alone. They’d cause a scene too.

The caretaker was presenting them with a drawing full of pink, purple and red. At least she could color coordinate. But like all kids, she couldn’t draw much. There were two princesses with pink and purple hair in the middle which was probably Riruka and someone she knew. Her mom? Two misshaped blobs stood in the background while the sun, red, shone through pinks clouds onto the whole scene. Maybe one of them was a house because the squares looked kinda like windows.

“Very pretty. I like the red sun and pink clouds.” They answered without too much conviction.

They liked sunset and sunrise, the sun bleeding hundreds of colors in the sky. That was close enough.

“It’s me and my sister!” Explained the little girl with a smile.” We’re the cutest princess with a really pretty castle full of sakura trees in the garden!”

Ichigo would never have guessed that. It was a Sakura tree? It looked so much like the house-castle.

“I’ll add you if you want! You’re cute too! And I like cute things!”

“We’re cute?” Asked Ichigo. “Hum, you too? Thanks?”

“Give me the orange! I’ll had Ichigo to my castle. She’ll be…”

The little girl hesitated, looking at her drawing in thought.

“How about another princess, Riruka-chan?” Proposed the caretaker, giving the orange pencil and a few others.

“No! I’m the princess so there can’t be another! My sis is one too cause we’re twins so it’s okay! Ichigo’ll be a fairy!”

Ichigo smiled. Fiting for a being of the spiritual world. They ended up on the drawing, flying with orange and red fairy wings between the pink cloud and the top of the sakura tree. Their orange hair looked like a second sun and she was made in red. Riruka made a copy, that ended up different with Ichigo playing with the two princesses, to give her.

It was cute. Ichigo kept it. Maybe they’d make her a drawing later.

Lunch came fast after that, the caretaker taking care to keep Ichigo and Riruka together at the table with the less children possible. Those did not bother the girls even though one of them kept staring at their bright hair.

Then got two hours of drawing again before being forced toward the back where futons waited. Nap time.

Ichigo was all too happy to fall asleep. They didn’t know their three way through process and outside stimuli could be too much handle at once.

_Answering the call and calling to him, the knowledge his as if he held the books, listened to the tutors and practiced with his own hands. Body falling with a loud sound to the flour, all memories, power and abilities now his. The being he had known for so long, who had loved him and nurtured him, dead. The follower could only live on inside their god’s soul._

_The Shinigami dressed in Hollow white was not a potential, challenging prey. Not yet. He was his king. The one that was Hollow white was not a prey either, his king would not permit such a fight, but he knew he would kill the king at the first sign of weakness. The one that was weak, without eyes, and half-hollow without a heart would have been a prey if the king permitted such a hunt._

_Black and white, the girl squint at a face before letting her mouth fall open in shock. She holds a heart and smile. She holds a doll house. She screams, she frowns, she sneezes. A man smirk as she stands at his side, a cross around his neck._

_White bone grows over him and over the soul. Dark, deep, hungry and poisonous Reiatsu spread and mingle into theirs. It wants to eat. It will. He can’t fight, he isn’t quite formed yet. Neither can his wielder, not quite born and reborn yet. But his duty, his will, is to protect that one being. To protect her, to serve her, to help her, to love her, to kill and purify for her…_

_Sharp like a blade and burning like poison he has nothing to latch unto. The other parts of this soul are rejecting him, the last part and the other intruder. But he can step in-between all of them. Create a neutral ground. Or he can let her be the one. Humans weren’t made to reject the other type of soul exciting. No, they became those souls. Why not all four?_

_She feels like she’s going mad again. Deep and dark and mercyless and selfish. It’s as great as it’s terrible. It burns her heart like poison, she can feel a few arteries and major veins burns and weigh more with it. But her heart can’t beat either and she know something else is the cause. She knows something make her veins pulse and something else make them harden. That she burns not once but twice. And then trice there’s something everywhere too. She feels like she’s bathed in lead and given lava in her veins. Like there’s so many things slipping through the cracks of her souls, exploiting every weakness._

_They feel impossible._

Ichigo wake up with a jump. They’re still at school and the caretaker whisper to her to go back to sleep. They turn around and disappear under the cover before she can come. Ignore her when she still does and fall back asleep long after she’s gone.

Masaki is the one to come get her child. Since Isshin’s threat, the woman hasn’t trust her little one with her husband. She’s not sure herself if she fears Isshin will do as he said or if she fears he will do something wrong again.

Like forgetting her. He does that.

So Masaki smile, and kiss him and even sleep with him sometimes. Trying to see the man she through she married. And she smiles brighter, kiss longer, hold tighter her child. Through she did give him a dressing down when she had come back from Urahara.

It changed nothing. Isshin still didn’t want to tell anything to Ichigo. And Urahara was, apparently, too much of a coward full of guilt to force the man to tell the child.

Let her have a normal childhood, they said. Masaki knew better.

Still, Ichigo would have everything from Masaki. Including school and friends.

Yet, her child did not want that.

Ichigo ran to their mother, holding tight to her legs and tug her away from school. She did give a goodbye to Riruka in passing but was more interested in going home.

Which is why she tried to kill the caretaker that stopped them with her eyes.

“Is there a problem?” Asked their kaa-san with a worried look toward Ichigo.

But her child kept on frowning heavily without explaining anything. The caretaker kept fidgeting, looking worried.

“It’s about Ichigo-chan. I know it’s the first day but is she usually the kind to stay alone? Does she not like to play even by herself?”

“Ah, no. Not really. Ichigo will read or draw or even try to write if you let her. She’ll wach some T.V too. But she doesn’t like to play with many toys. Why? Did she not make any friend? Or at least try? I saw her say goodbye to that little girl.”

“Well, she did meet Riruka-chan and they stayed together the rest of the day but the little girl got into trouble and had to be isolated to calm down. Ichigo-chan had kept to herself all along and Riruka-chan ended up latching into her.”

“Ichigo.” Asked Masaki. “Did you like Riruka-chan?”

“Hum…Not really? She was just cute.” Answered the shorter one with a shrug.

Both adults, in adult bodies that is, mouthed the word to themselves. Masaki in surprised confusion and the caretaker with the expression of someone who wanted to coo at something adorable.

“What about the other children?”

“We don’t care.” Came the prompt, definitive, answer. “Half of them speak so bad we don’t understand a word. The other half are incredibly childish and annoying! We can’t bear it!”

“We?” Asked the caretaker in a low voice but Masaki ignored her: “Was it so terrible? Did you really not like being with children your age?”

“No. Did not like. Did not care. Am not happy.”

Kaa-san’s face fell and they felt guilty for it. But they couldn’t do much for her, they were just being honest. School was useless for them.

What did they care for all those lesson and things to learn when they had already been taught one, and then learned through other means a hundred times? What would they do with children as friends when they knew what kind of people there was in the spiritual world? Why would they bother with any kind of degree when they had never liked or wanted to live a normal human life?

“I see.” And kaa-san seemed so very very sad. She took hold of their tiny hand and began walking away. “Let’s talk a bit more about it home.”

“One moment!” Cut in the caretaker before handing over a few sheets of papers. “Those are what Ichigo-chan did all day. There’s a few drawings but…The rest are not.”

And the rest was quite a bit. Masaki did not even need to open one of the bend papers in her hands to see all the kanjis.

That’s when Ichigo realised she had written letters too.

None of it made much sense. Even to Ichigo. On some pages letters or kanjis were clumsily spilled across the paper in almost perfect lines or coloring the page black. On others there was words and names learned in other lives.

You could easily count a grand total of five tongues written there. Which was _not_ something a child her ages should know how to do.

And by taking her past life into comparison, a random normal adult usually didn’t either.

And the drawings. Ichigo didn’t know if they were more incriminating or less. She could see a black and white hollow eye from here. And she had made a crude representation of Naruto’s Shinigami right there which would make for _such a coincidence._ She was also, just a bit worried about the Naruto seal? What if Masaki through it was a Shinigami spell?

“I’m a bit worried she might be bored? Or worse too clumsy socially?” Continued the teacher. “She didn’t really do anything else today.”

Masaki took the papers in her hands without sparring it more than one glance. She wasn’t surprised. Ichigo tended to space out, and when she did, she could get immersed entirely on what she was doing. If it was thinking, she’d think only and look asleep. If it was writing and doodling, she’d do that without a care in the world.

And it did, sometimes, bring surprising things on paper.

So Masaki knew Ichigo wasn’t a normal child. And she also knew that she wasn’t the young powerhouse Isshin and Urahara-san believed she was.

Ishin never saw the angry eyes that _knew why_ they were angry. Urahara-san never recognised the sharp eyes gliding across his face in their own flash of recognition.

But Masaki always saw when Ichigo didn’t react like a child. When something wasn’t new, wasn’t surprising, wasn’t too hard to understand.

Like those papers. Drawings of things she knew and other she didn’t. The double blade looked a lot like a zenpakuto but were would Icigo see a double bladed one? There was a hollow eye right there and it made White’s eyes haunt Masaki for a second. And here were words in German and English.

“Mom?”

Masaki lifted her head up from the papers, realising she had walked her child to the car just like that. She cringed: a parking was no place to have our head in the clouds, especially with a child. Said child had obviously been waiting for her to react and to open the car’s doors. With a sigh, Masaki did so but, instead of putting her child in the backseat, she sat them on the front seat before going herself into the driver seat.

Ichigo was now frowning heavily but Masaki could see the glimmer of sharp golden eyes watching warily.

“I’m not angry.” She immediately started. “I’m not sad either. Not really. And I won’t be.”

She marked a pause and noted that Ichigo had relaxed just a bit. Her child was smart and believed she wasn’t. Not that she wouldn’t be.

“But I am worried.” Admitted Masaki. “You didn’t like school.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“It’s boring.”

Masaki sighed, seeing her child closing herself off from her and readying herself for this interrogation.

“Why?”

“There’s just nothing interesting.”

“Did you learn nothing new?”

“No.”

“Did you not play? Made friends? Liked the little girl?”

“We didn’t play, we don’t want to. We didn’t make friends: they’re boring. The girl is a bit cute and fun. I guess.”

Well at least her child wasn’t completely incapable of socializing with others. Maybe just connecting?

“Did you stay with her a lot?”

“Yeah. Just drew, throught.”

“That’s nice. You drew all that all day then?”

She began to leaf between the page, making it so Ichigo could see with her. Masaki pointed to the drawing of the eye.

“What’s that then?”

When Ichigo stayed silent, Masaki turned toward with a calm but knowing stare.

“You know.” Mumbled the child. “It’s his.”

“Who’s?”

Ichigo hesitated before answering: “Hollow-me.”

Masaki froze. She had expected the answer to be “White”.

“O-oh.” She mumbled. “How do you know there is a hollow you, sweetie? Did you meet it?”

And then she remembered how her child spoke:

“Are you Ichigo _and_ Hollow-Ichigo? Is that why you speak in plurial?”

“Hi, Mom.”

And her child smiled, a bright, proud thing that came with eyes full of fear:

“We’re a Human, Quincy, Shinigami, Hollow Hybrid. And we remember it.”

Masaki let out a broken sob, realising what had been running havoc in her child’s mind -which is to say, said child’s mind itself- and bend herself over the seat to hug her child. She hugged her baby close even when she apologized for being more than half the soul of her enemy. Even when she apologized for not being an actual, proper child.

Masaki didn’t care. She could only think of the fear of being a hollow with your enemies as parents. Of the deep guilt of being almost adult when everyone expected a child. Of the weight of knowing of the danger coming.

“It’s alright, love.” She finally murmured to her child. “Mommy’s got you. Mom’s with you. I love you.”

She kissed her forehead, her cheeks.

“I love you whole.”

And Masaki did not care if, one day, her child looked at her with her golden eyes circled with shadows. She did not care if , one day, ichigo would manifested two zenpakuto spirit with frighteningly familiars faces.

“So.” Finally asked Masaki. “Do you not like shool?”

“The school can’t teach me anything.” Answered Ichigo with disgust.

“Are you sure?” Frowned Masaki. “Yhwach has never gone. Or the hollow.”

“But Jéna did. Take all three and you get the perfect curriculum.”

Masaki marked a pause.

“Jéna?”

“Hum….Human soul who got tangled up in the trouble of the messy rebirth?” Cringed Ichigo.

“Are you Jéna, then?”

“We’re Ichigo and Ichigo is what’s left of Jéna. And of Yhwach’s soul shard. And of White. That’s the hollow.” Quickly explained her child. “But they’re dead so we’re Ichigo.”

“I see…But I’d like you to still go to school at some point and make friends.”

“Ugh! Just for the records I’m against it.”

“Noted, now into your seat young one.”

“I’m technically older than you.”

“That’s just speaking badly of yourself sweetie.”

Masaki happily ignored the offended squack her child let out at that, looking at her with such a humorous expression of offense, she wasn’t worried about the Ywach bits or the hollow parts that made up her soul.

Once home, throught, Masaki took the time to light up two stick of essence and prayed silently for the rest of a soul that now had to deal alone with the worse Hollow Masaki had ever seen and a god-like man.

And that left her child with the heavy gift of knowledge.

“Now, what’s the plan Ichi-chan?”

“To be the Portector of our own and their destroyer.”

So the Kurosaki women sat together at a table amid old drawings and pencils, Isshin passing by them with only a fond glance, and began to plan.

Masaki would teach Ichigo everything about Reiatsu and Reiryoku manipulation. But nothing about using Quincy powers. In the same branch, she wouldn’t sharpen her own skills no matter that they were coming back. Instead, she’d act paranoid and push Uraraha into protecting them better.

After all: why had Yhwach spared canon Ichigo and Uryu, both unpure, but not their mothers, one of them being perfectly pure. What did the two women have in common that the children had not?

The only answer they had was: cultivated and trained power.

So. No training meant no powers particularly powerful. And none of those could mean that Yhwach wouldn’t be interested in taking any of it.

But still, they would train their bodies. Running, lifting weigh, fighting, they’d learn as much as possible. To begin with, they decided to go to Karate and Taekwendo. Masaki planned carefully when she would be able to teach her child archery and the few things she knew about the Kurosaki clan from history to politics. The rests became Ichigo’s homeschool classes: from politics to philosophy, biology to medicine.


	7. Family reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They met them long ago, they know them and at the same time they don't.

Ichigo was five, dressed in a white dress with gorgeous gold and pretty blue designs, following her mother with a similar dress into the woods.

They both wore face paint, which was a bit unusual for the occasion but nothing too uncommon, and Masaki had her Quincy star around her wrist.

_Usually, the catalyst would be with her child, a useless oversized trinket for her since Masaki would not feel her power until the years of secrets had passed._

The paint was fairly simple: a wide, white, streak of paint across the face and through one eye from top to bottom. The new traditional paint of the Kurosaki for now, Masaki was determined to copy her child hollow mask when she'd develop it and its marking. To represent their status as Eitch, they both had a golden Quincy start on their brow.

The only thing black they wore was their archer gloves with the Kanji for five sew on their pulse.

Because Masaki was the last Kurosaki, descendant of the spirit king and mother of a kurosaki child. But she was also the mother of a Shiba child, descendant of the spirit kind as well.

Masaki had to hide so much of her child, she wouldn't deny its existence as well. Her child was a Hybrid, it was a secret but it was fact too.

So she would present her child as both a Quincy, a Shinigami and a Hollow. And she'd deal with the consequences if someone was smart enough to pick up on the clues.

But truly, who would? Which Quincy had seen white or anything like the experimental Hollow? Which Quincy remembered the Shiba, fifth noble house of the Shinigami, specialized in fireworks?

Who would find them?

When Masaki finally passed the tree and bushes, coming face to face with a meadow that was more a bit of space in between trees, she smiled sadly.

She remembered the parties with her family, full of tradition and proper etiquette where she'd sneak away to the few Quincies and cousin that let her have fun instead of acting like a noble.

She remembered even more vividly, the years where those parties were reduced to a treat alone in the Kitchen and a message to Ryuken.

But from today and onward, as long as she was careful, she'd be able to revive those feasts to almost their full potential with her daughter. And here she was, back in her traditional clothes and paint with only a Quincy for company. Hidden in the woods, away from the humans, and with foods and gifts and well wishes to share.

She set the table over the roots of the largest tree, letting candles melt and stick to his bark to give them light under the shadow. She spread the food everywhere, revealing the feast she had worked hard to make and her daughter spread the gifts, revealing that the child had worked hard as well.

The ritual was short, they were only two wishing for the well being of everyone, and her daughter insisted that gifts were for _after_ dessert. So they ate happily, throwing some breadcrumbs into the grass when birds came singing.

Overall, they were happy with just that.

Masaki was touched, teary eyed even, when she found the gifts her child had prepared. A drawing, one she now realized was the one her child had kept hiding and working on for so long, representing a woman about Masaki's age. She had long curly hair as wild as Ichigo's own spiky hair and a smirk that she knew by heart. Even her eyes, the wrong shade and the wrong shape, seemed incredibly familiar with the way they were half closing with the mischievous smile. Next she found an album photo already a quarter full with, not pictures, but _moments._

Here she was cooking a birthday cake, her tongues pocking out and the counter covered in various spilled ingredients. There she was laughing so hard her face was red as she held her stomach and the couch to support her. This one was horribly blurry but you could clearly see half of Ichigo's gleeful face and a quarter of her own smiling one as well as a few fingers indicating that she was clearly roughhousing with her daughter. That one showed the wall where Ichigo kept marking a growth when she remembered it. And here they where in costume for Halloween. There was Christmas.

Somehow, ichigo made horrible pictures. So horrible they were _great_ at capturing a few moments and giving them back later on.

In all of them, Masaki was smiling. So was Ichigo. And there never was Isshin.

Masaki loved it.

In the same vein, Ichigo loved the necklace she got, a tiny thing of intricate design able to hold one picture, and the child sized bow and arrows. She immediately began shooting some spot in the grass, admitting she'd rather not hurt the trees.

The two Quincy ate, talked, played and danced all day away. When the first stars finally appeared, both women fell to their knees, head lifted heavenwards, and prayed.

As their eyes stayed fixated on the stars, they did not react to the man that fell on his knees by their side.

They ignored how he kept staring at Ichigo in between prayers. They ignored his prayers.

_I really wanna see this kid grow._

When the man left, disappearing into the shadows, Masaki stopped the festivities there. She put everything back in the bags, ensured they didn't even left a flitting Reiatsu impression, and ran with her child.

She was tempted to go to Urahara-san, tell him that there was other Quincies and, surely, they'd kill the impure Eitch and the woman who dared to marry a Shinigami.

But there was other Quincies.

So she was tempted to run to Ryuken. Tell him they'd kill Ichigo and Uryu and Katagiri-san.

But they hid in the shadows like the bests warrior of the Emperor did.

Instead, she locked her doors and slapped all the seals she had on Ichigo's arm. Then just the last one on her own. Asked her child, hyper-aware of all reiryoku, what she felt, if anything was out of the ordinary.

Her daughther told her no.

"But maybe that's just the thing." She continue as she twist her fingers in worry. "Maybe they're not out of the ordinary. Maybe they were alway here. Because i didn't see him coming until he was behind us and when he left i lost him in the mass."

"Where is he now?"

"No idea. Out of range? Hidden? Lost in the crowd?"

And Ichigo looked really lost and shakken, she had alway felt everything that happened around her, even Urahara who was so adept at hidding and repressed his reiatsu since that incident at her birth. But that man had been invisible until he was already with them.

"At least he prayed with us?" Offered the little girl.

Masaki's shoulder fell, relaxing with that tiny bit of relief:

"At least he prayed with us." She repeated.

No matter where Ywach was, he knew where they were anyway. So the only risk was that his soldier would kill them. But that one had prayed with them.

She told Ryuken and then, just to be sure, Katagiri-san.

"What do you mean he's officially my doctor?!"

"Just that." Masaki take a moment to think as she cook, her child squacking in indignation behind her. "Oh and he invited us over for tea."

" _What?!"_

When Ichigo meet Uryu for the first times, it's because they go to the same elementary school. And while the baby Quincy is _baffled_ and left confused in how to aproach at the sight of who he know is his cousin in the classroom, Ichigo isn't surprised in the least.

This school has very good reputation, a logical choice from any parent, but its not the one with the best reputation and the nearest location. To either of their houses.

So yeah, they aren't surprised in the least by the adult's ploy, no matter that they hadn't planned it. All the better for them : Uryu, no matter their dislike for him as character, is still both their cousin and a powerful Quincy.

Perfect excuse to bond with this powerful character and ensure he gets even more powerful and does not play any useless double game like in the manga.

In the end, it didn't help to kill Yhwach.

The class is, this time, just as boring as Ichigo ever remembered even if they don't know about some of the things the teacher speak of. Even if they aren't really motivated, maybe they'll find a way to learn that work for them since listening to the droning is impossible. At least it would make this experience less painful.

In the end they listen with one ear, just enough to follow what's happening, and read their notebooks in an effort to be studious.

Both Jéna and Yhwach had given Ichigo their ability to forever remember a book that they had read to the smallest details after only one reading.

At recess, she didn't get to rejoin with Uryu who stayed at his desk with a book while another familiar face threw themselve at her.

"Kurosaki-chan!"

"Dokugamine-chan?" They exclaimed as the cute little girl hung unto them.

How the _hell_ did every character live so very near each other without ever meeting or realising they had already crossed path in the manga?

Kurakura was a tiny town whith few schools which tended to reunite everyone. Worse, there was one industrial zone with warehouse, -guess were the Vaizard hid?- and very few traditional shops, temples or buildings. And one hospital. And, what?, two doctor's clinic and one managed by nurses? Adding to that the high concentration of Reyryoku working as bait for hollow and making Shinigami follow...

How did anyone miss everyone else and everything?

"Oh, sugoï!" Squealed the girl, letting go of their arm to latch unto long strand of vibrant orange hair. "Your hair grew! This is so much cuter! And with the school uniform! Can i see you with the hat?"

"I'd rather not, it make us all look ridiculous." She answered promtly.

"Mou." Pouted the girl. "I think it looks cute. And look! Doesn't it look all great on me too."

She twirled to show off her blue and black uniform, tilling her head just right to show the matching bow she had in her hair.

"Cute enough to eat." Teased the older girl.

"Kya!"Laughed the girl as she hid behind her hand with flushed cheeks. "Don't eat me! You can't!"

"Who's going to stop me?" She asked, brandishing claw like hands.

"No!" Cried Dokugamime as she ran away, still she laughted as Ichigo followed at a more sedate space, until they reached the perfect copy of the Dokugamine girl. "Gina, protect me!"

Ichigo couldn't help but raise both eyebrows at the sight. The girls were true twins, perfect copies of each other phisycally, but very different in personality. While Riruka had a wide smile, michief in her eyes and an obvious love for everything cute her sister was much calmer.

Gina's smile was soft and polite, her eyes shining kindly and she did not wear any cute bow, ribbons or earrings like her sister did. She did not even wear her hair in a similar style: keeping them held away from her face with two simple clips as they flowed down her back.

She looked like a completly normal person, a secondary character from a shogo manga.

No surprise that she had no place in the Shonen that was Bleach where all women where as powerful and as colorful as the male characters. No one was bland, no one stayed weak unless they died.

"Hi." Greeted Ichigo with a soft smile. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."

"I'm Gina Dokuagamine, nice to meet you." Answered the girl as she bowed.

Which reminded Ichigo that they had never done that to anyone. Oups.

Well, its not like they wanted to.

Riruka sudenly gasped:

" That's right! You never met Gina!" Then she frowned heavily, growling at Ichigo like they had done some great fault. "Why did you not come back to school anyway?!"

"Too boring for us."

"But I was here!"

"So were all the other idiots who couldn't even talk properly." Riruka giggled at that. "We weren't staying, no thanks."

"Ok, but now you're staying, right?!"

At that, even Gina threw Ichigo a pleading look that matched that of her sister.

"Sure."

"Great! Well, from now on i'm Riruka-chan!"

"Please, call me Gina too." Asked the other softly. "You'll get everyone confused if you say Dokugamine."

"Hum, Sure."

"And you'll be Ichigo-chan!"

Ichigo kept a cringe off their face.

"Did you like the lesson, Ichigo-san?" Asked sudenly Gina.

"I'm terribly bored. I've been reading the book!" They laughed.

"I couldn't follow either. The Teacher is so boring, Gina!"

"Ano, if you both want, we can go over it again together?"

"I don't want to!" Whined Riruka. "Like i said, it's boring."

"Why not?" Answered Ichigo with a shrug.

"heh!? Then me too! Don't leave me out!"

"Children, back to your place! Class start again!"

"Children, back to your place, _please._ " Growled lowly Ichigo. "Torture start again."

That's how Ichigo learned that Riruka was a worst student than them. The little girl was all too happy and determined to throw different paper balls full of babbling messages to her from the very back of the class.

And never got caught.

So...

Ichigo didn't quite manage to process this.

_What is this?-Oh, it's great!-It make no sense, why are they-?-Children, horrible imps-This is so fun!-Fun, fun, fun!_

It was Pandemonium. Arnarchy. Mayhem.

Chaos. Beautiful, marvellous, Chaos.

The mix of Ichigo, Gina, Riruka and Uryu was equal to a chemical experience who should not have been done. It exploded in your face with toxic fume and ate throught the table even as some of the resulting experiment stayed in the testing tube and proved to be _good results._

Ichigo and Riruka were too much for both Gina and Uryu, but even then, the two girls didn't quite match and neither did the two others. Yet Riruka loved her sister and Ichigo was so cute and Ishida-kun was their cousin. Yet Gina liked them all. Yet Uryu wanted to get along his cousin and Gina was not that anoying.

Ichigo was the worst. They were the one after more allies just as much as they wanted friends.

And considering all the characters Ichigo wanted to associate very closely with, they couldn't wait to see what chaos and mayhem could create such a group. Canon Ichigo's groupe of friends and family had already been quite the riot on its own. So if they put all those people into one group...

_They were laughting._

"So, Uryu. Gina proposed a study group to review the lesson." Said Ichigo. "How about we do that every friday or so?"

"But i followed the lesson just fine, i do not need help."

"It's just to be together." They sighed, lifting their eyes heaven's way.

"Oh. Then i am amenable to the idea."

"Amena-what?!" Exaclimed Riruka.

"It means that i'm intereseted. And agreeing." He answered politely.

"You have a very good vocabulary, Ishida-kun." Praised Gina quietly.

"He should just say that he want to join!"

"If he want to speak better than everyone and to be really cool and class, he can and should." Laughed Ichigo with a sly look, sure to convince the girl this way. "When you are better, you show off at least a bit."

"Like you show everyone how cute you are, Riruka-chan."

"So I'm cute and Ishida-kun's classy?" Smiled the little and Ihigo burst out laughing when Uryu became beet red at the words. "Oh, sugoï! I like that!"

Ichigo was dying. Gina was now trying to sufocate, both hands over her mouth as her shoulder shook.

"I-I...Thank you for the compliment, Riruka-san."

"You're welcome! Classy is great after all. But you should still try to be cute, it's the best."

"I'll keep it in mind."

They were horribly lost.

It would have been quite the problem. A child lost in a was so big, and no one wanted to let a child be lost. And then the poor child would be in trouble with their teacher. Or worse, Ichigo lost in a Museums. Now, that could easily become the equivalent of all the winds escaping Odyseus' bag.

But Ichigo were lost in the _National Museum of Japan History._

They were reincarnated, mature enough to like where they were and to love being let loose in it. They had no idea what path they should take to get to where they could feel their cousin's Reiatsu, but did they really have to bother?

They were in Gallery two, who seemed to concentrate on the court, the daimyo and their military. It seemed to even present things about their daily life instead of just historical facts. There was quite a few mannequin mimicking some scene or other, a few tiny reconstruction of cities, lots of ancient documents from actual archives to novels to letters and poems. All of them tastefully accompaniated with paintings, various art pieces, and mondane objects.

Yup, Ichigo were staying.

Ichigo hapilly admired and analysed everything they saw, trying to see the details of everything from a tiny thing added just there in the corner of some painting or texts to brush's strokes and careful stiching on the clothing. She even checked the explanation written next to the exposition to understand better. There was the Yamato Court from the Heian period -who was actually the name of the court controlled by the most powerfull royal line- and the begining of the literarue with it. Then there was representations and maps of Kamakura and some explanation about the conflict between east and West which was only insteresting to see how it was at the time.

Then there was the Daimyo and their uprising, which was much more fascninating than Kamakura and much more fun because...

Ichigo remembered _very fondly_ Jéna's memories of _Naruto._ Where the countries were ruled by the kage, military leader, and the Daimyo, royal leader. There was some mansion's repoduced and more archives and litterature. Some ink painting and letters, a few objects but not much more sadly.

But they did find an armor set and some personal possesion as well as a tanto. The description claimed it was a soldier's, and that they weren't sure if all those things were his. Under the glass, there was a scroll completly impossible to read, even if you were an historian specialized, an empty pouch, believed to have contained some medicine or drug, a water skin, three throwing knives and a bit of thin iron thread.

Behind the glass, there was someone. Just comming throught the wall.

Ichigo couldn't stop a flinch -maybe it was subtle enough ?-and couldn't fake the glance at them when their eyes met.

Still, Ichigo cooly looked away and higher, as if searching for something and just looking at stuff. Not at all looking at the first ghost they ended up nose to nose with.

"Apologises." Said the man cooly throught a mouth covered half-way in bone. "I did not mean to startle you."

Ichigo still thought it was a nice try.

"You look quite old." They said, loocking at the armor.

The man had been ready to step away, Ichigo had been a second away from getting rid of him, but he stopped.

"No need to worry. I am old but i did not transform into those beings during all those years."

"You're covered in rust." Frowned the child. "They could have cleaned it up."

"I am. They should."

The man marqued a pause and Ichigo took the oportunity to look at him. He had short hair of a dark but shiny shade while his eyes seemed to be voids. His skin was pale as moonlight and he wore a slighthy broken and bloodied, but otherwise well maintained, verssion of the armor presented before them. There was a square pouch at his tight were they knew the knives and pouch could fit and the tanto was at his hip, but the scroll was nowhere to be seen.

And bone had spread over hals of his collarbone and jaws from a mangled chains, links eaten in disorder and born from a dark patch over his heart.

Not quite a Hollow mask and armor. Not quite a Hollow hole. But not quite a proper chain either. The mouths eating the chains in canon had even disapeared long ago.

The man didn't seem to want to explain further. He didn't seem to want to leave quite yet either.

"So you were a soldier's armor."

"Not quite." And this time, she was a corner of his lips lift in a faint smirk. "I am a Shinobi. My name is Hikaku."

The man _knew_ what he did and Ichigo barely stopped themselve from squealling like a crazy fanatic.

"We-euh-We are kinda lost?" They said instead.

And obviously, since the ghost was here since his gear was, he knew perfectly well how to lead Ichigo to her class while following the girl like a compass toward her cousin.

The teacher scolded them, their friends fretted over them , and their cousin, used by now to them, asked about what she had seen while unsurpervised.

Only when they turned back to thank the ghost and say their goodbyes, did they realise that he had left. With a quick check of their senses, they realised he was back by his gear.

He had never come near the class. But she'd see him again.

_Crunch of bones and whines of the dying-power joining the very air and taste of the soul gone-butterfly of sweet darkness and poison purple flying away in blue lights-power spilling into his gut just like the blood and flesh he swallowed-light,memories,fellings,signatures gones and shaterred and earased- great door of horror and the shadow of greater guardians oppening for the felled one_

What part of them would leave him here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm not really making this a crossover, in case someone is wondering, but i'm going to have fun with that. Some others did and it was great if sometimes a bit over the top.  
> I love in particular self-inserts were everything from the past life interact with the new one. From the modern way of living to other fandoms. 
> 
> Alos, Hikaku is not an OC, nooo my dears. He's from Naruto's canon! I found/met him on a wiki page. He seems like those characters you use to fill the background. I didn't know him before searching for someone to fit this role. I admit i changed his apparence a bit to match a certain stereotype....
> 
> Also, i still see some great comments and receive a lot of notification saying "you got kuudos" so i'm incredibly happy and grateful for it. Guys, thank you lots!!!
> 
> Also: thanks for Warning me of the Glitch killuaap!


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